WHEN ABORTION WAS ILLEGAL: Untold Stories
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- Topics
- Dorothy Fadiman, Academy Award, Oscar, Concentric Media, reproductive rights, women, women's rights, abortion, abortion laws, abortion legislation, abortion rights, women's history, women's health, personal stories, interviews, reproductive health, reproductive choice, medical issues, health care, medical care, public policy, human rights, doctors, abortion doctors, clergy, back alleys, women's history, illegal abortions, abortionists, Erika Luckett
- Publisher
- Concentric Media
- Digitizing sponsor
- KTEH-TV
This Academy Award-nominated film features compelling first person accounts, which reveal the physical, legal, and emotional consequences during the era when abortion was a criminal act. Until recently, the era of illegal abortion had been a "sealed chapter" in U.S. women's history.
The aura of shame surrounding unwanted pregnancies and abortion before Roe v. Wade kept most women from ever admitting that they had had illegal abortions - an experience which many had faced, but about which few ever spoke.
Women suffering complications from back alley or self-induced abortions avoided admitting what they had done. As a result, many women died from untreated infections while some hemorrhaged to death. Candid interviews reveal the tragedies, as well as the courage and heroism of a shrouded time. This poignant oral history weaves together the untold stories of these women with the work of individuals who risked arrest in order to help them.
All public, educational, and government access television stations (PEG) and community media stations have permission to broadcast this film and any of Dorothy Fadiman's other films.
Credits
Producer/Director: Dorothy Fadiman
Executive Producer: Danny McGuire
Camera/Editing: Daniel Meyers, Blake McHugh
Production Team: Daniel Meyers, Beth Seltzer
Additional editing: Nila Bogue Staudt, Lise Rubenstein
Music: Erika Luckett
Produced with KTEH-TV (PBS)
Awards
ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION Best Documentary Short Subject
GOLD MEDAL Corporation for Public Broadcasting
GOLD APPLE National Educational Film/Video Festival
BEST DOCUMENTARY Atlanta International Film/Video Festival
BEST TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY The EMMA, Exceptional Merit Media Award
National Women's Political Caucus
BEST TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY The Maggie Award, Planned Parenthood Federation of America
BEST DOCUMENTARY The Joey Awards
HUMANITARIAN AWARD of EXCELLENCE Sinking Creek Film Festival
EXEMPLARY LEADERSHIP AWARD Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
(RCRC is a non-denominational consortium of more than thirty Christian, Jewish, and other religious groups openly and actively committed to reproductive rights for women.)
- Contact Information
- Distributed by: Bullfrog Films: info@bullfrogfilms.com Concentric Media www.concentric.org
- Addeddate
- 2005-02-10 17:24:03
- Color
- color
- Director
- Dorothy Fadiman
- Identifier
- when_abortion_was_illegal
- Run time
- 28:02
- Sound
- sound
- Type
- MovingImage
comment
Reviews
Subject: Real People - True Stories - Sad Time in History
Subject: According to the Bible
Planned Parenthood and it's ilk are engaged in a slaughter so horrific that it will place above Hitler's Nazi Germany when the final chapter of human history is written.
That our society has desensitized us so much to murder and death to the point where unborn babies can be torn from their mother's womb.
Please also ponder that the approximately 1 million children every single year that are not born because of abortion since 1973 has played into the illegal immigration crisis in this country. The vacuum that is left by all those children who never grew up and never got married and never had children of their own is filled by foreigners.
Also note that the greatest threat to people with black pigmented skin is not any of the bull crap racial stuff that is pushed by the 'liberal' socialist education system and the bogus leaders of current day so called 'civil rights activists'.
No the greatest threat to black folks is the local planned parenthood which practices voluntary GENOCIDE against poor and working women throughout this Nation.
There can and should be health care for all people and yes women deserve specialized care for female issues but what is going on with ABORTION is a very dark and a very ugly chapter in U.S. History.
Children are a gift from GOD and if you are reading this then someone thought that about you many years ago.
Subject: NO!
You should "Dialectically Deconstruct" a baby and call it a fetus.
Their it makes it better doesn't it?
Just like calling a german a hun, It makes it more easy to accept the killing of them, Like Dresden.
Abortion is killing a defenceless baby, And their is nothing more sickening or evil than that.
Subject: An Excellent Documentary! Thanks!
Subject: 53 Million Unborn Babies Dead and Counting!
Subject: Public Domain
I was wondering if this video is Public Domain, as I would like to use a small fragment of it for an independent, non-profit, short film that I produced.
Subject: I was one of these women...
Subject: Outstanding
Thank you Dorothy for bring alive what all too often is forgotten, or for the young women out there, isn't know.
I agree, it is time to stop all the violence toward women.
Subject: Disturbing and Eye-Opening
This documentary revealed to me that the issue is actually one of women's rights. These dreadful stories of women who could not get the care they needed deeply disturbed me.
However, what I find more disturbing are the comments of this movie. The name-calling, judging, and attacking of these women in need is very troubling. Quoting Bible verses gets us nowhere when we can't look at every "sin" on a case-by-case basis. For those who are completely against abortion in every case, just pray that you don't end up in such a dreadful situation, and try to understand that everyone who seeks one of these operations must have a very good reason for making such a powerful decision. Abortions are not casually performed, and, as seen in this documentary, much thought is given on the issue.
The speakers in this video; the to-be mothers and fathers, the physicians, and the narrators; are very brave, and these are stories that need to be told in order to protect women's rights in the future.
Subject: Let's Not Speak The Word, We Might Be Responsible Then
I think we may have a combo pack of the worlds most murderous regimes soon, now that we are north of 40 million. A Pol Pot and Hitler?
The racists are happy that almost half are black. And I thought that Middle Passage was enough to make me sick with rage.
Don't forget to PDF that court doc.
http://tinyurl.com/4otmrdp
:-) Hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil.
Does anyone know how to get the blood off our hands?
Just change one word, http://tinyurl.com/4m56ytd
Subject: I'm not American; I tell you what US is missing...
The first thing that in US they forget (that is Biblical and physical), you can't have sex before marriage or any form and sexual act. Virginity of woman and purity of man, are for one man and one woman covenant. The blood of a virgin woman, is that covenant of man and woman that they will be one flesh. So when you break that and sin, then you get pregnant without covenant (it is a pagan lifestyle), and things are no right because you started wrong. So when baby is constipated, it is alive. When is alive, then abortion kills it. Another big sin. So this is your life. You must go to biblical truth, what is Biblical will always be truth and the highest good for you. So leave this Hellenistic pagan mindset, repent and purify yourself and let you be light and example to the world and others how Jesus meant to live and that in abundance. It start with choices.
Subject: Illegal Abortion is a danger to women
Making something illegal is not going to stop those who do it from doing it anyway, even if you try to beat religion into their head or call them murderers. There will always be desperate souls. By allowing abortions to be done legally, you are minimizing the abortion related deaths and helping to provide women everywhere a safe place to talk about their options openly and intelligently. The facts will often turn young women away from abortion before a few hand painted "You're going to hell!" signs from the picketers outside of the clinic.
I'm not saying that I believe that abortion is right. I'm asking who are we to condemn the life of another person? I don't know about your God, but my God loves everyone not because we are perfect little angels, but because we make mistakes and we seek his guidance and forgiveness. My God is happier with me when I accept and forgive my fellow brothers and sisters than when I am hateful.
I would much rather someone have a safe abortion in a clinic than see them die on the streets all for the sake of 'law,' 'ethics,' or 'religion.' No one life is greater than another. Mother nor child.
On actual comment of the documentary and not just the controversy surrounding it, I thought it was tasteful. It avoided the religious and ethical standpoints and didn't scream pro-choice in my face while doing it. There should be more issues viewed from this lens.
Subject: A License To Kill...
God knew us before we're even born, just as He knew Jeremiah, the prophet, before he was born (Jeremiah 1:5). God creates each of us, from the smallest cell, to the sinew, bones, flesh, and to the brain we think with, the heart that beats, and the respiratory system that's in our bodies (Psalm 139:13-16).. and has numbered our days. Every time an abortionist kills a pre-born baby, he/she interrupts God's creation. When that happens, an abomination has taken place, for "the hands that shed innocent blood"is an abomination to God (Proverbs 6:16,17).
There's a story of a fight between two men, and a pregnant wife nearby. If a man should kick the pregnant woman in the stomach and she should lose her pre-born "child", his life is forfeited. It will be a life for a life (Exodus 21:22,23). That is what God thinks about killing pre-born children... they are living! NOTICE: That in that story, the pre-born baby is called a "child", not a fetus or a tissue blob... just as in EVERY part of the Holy Bible that talks about a pre-born baby... it's a "child"... EXCEPT one other place in the Bible, where a pre-born baby (John the Baptist) was called a "babe" (Luke 1:41).
Women, who have the "James Bond" attitude of having the "license to kill" a pre-born baby, will have the Creator of that baby to answer to. It's a grave and abominable sin in God's eyes.
Fortunately, to all the women and young girls who have had an abortion... God forgives. So, turn your life over to God, repent of all your sins (lying, hatred, stealing, abortions, blasphemies, etc.), and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Be a follower of Jesus, every day (1 John 1:9;Romans 10:9).
Never underestimate God's knowledge about you, and the actions you have taken during your entire life. And, don't be fooled to think that some of the good you have done will erase the bad... you're a sinner (Romans 3:23), and you need Jesus to wash all the sins from your life, so you can become acceptable to God. It's a wonderful gift, and God is gracious and merciful enough to offer it so we can escape the Lake of Fire (Revelation 21:8), and live in Heaven, where there will be no more death or pain (Revelation 21:7), because God loves you (John 3:16; Romans 5:8).
Merry Christmas...
Subject: Yes
Subject: Thank God this movie was made
Subject: Rights of Women
And you don't find people who rape 13 year-olds and you want these children to keep their babies soon to give them up. And this isn't sick... Yeah, right... what an hypocrisy...
Subject: Archives shows truth that woman induce own Horror.
Woman...steel tool cut her up while cutting up baby into
baby parts of bloody dismembered intestines, stomachs,
heads, feet, legs, hands, feet.
Our reaction should be after seeing the truth is TO NOT DO BOTH.
DON'T cut up woman or DON'T cut up baby.
No more horror. Both bleed a lot.
Americans, tell people they can not do both.
It is simple as that.
Vision I had at a retreat, thirty years ago.
How coincidence of how it relates to a woman and a baby.
I had to share it with you....
This vision was so intense that I shared it to SO many people in my life. I even made it into a song. What an impact it did in my life to hold on to something true.
I remember a time, I had this one site.
I remember a babe, at this one night.
The babe was in a gutter of the terrible sin.
Covered with his own blood with sores within.
Child, child why are you there?
Child, child abandoned right there?
I remember a man. He picked this child up.
Held it dear, within his arms.
When the child realize this...
That he was in the Best of Care.
He didn't care that he had his blood covered him.
He didn't care that he was abandoned just then.
He didn't care of what the world did to him.
He was in such PAIN!!!
But now the arms of the man were around him.
Oh Lord I can feel this.....child
and I feel your arms around him.
and I can see that in this dream
that the child suppose to be....me!
So....
I don't care now what the world did to me.
I don't care now if I am so blind.
I don't care now what ever it is.
As long as you, long as you, hold me tight.
Hold me tight Lord and I don't care,
What the world did to me tonight
Hold me tight Lord and I don't care,
What the world did to me tonight
Hold me, hold me tight, hold me, hold me tight.
Hold me, hold me tight, hold me, hold me tonight!!!
Subject: Intelligent and Well Made
Subject: Author of this video supports the murder of babies
Subject: Unfortunately, that's what it's like in Brazil
Subject: A heartbreaking story
Subject: Why continue the cycle of violence when one can end it with the gift of life?
From another point of view, "If there is no God, everything is permissable." (Dostoevski) And if there is a God, and a moral law derived from him, we're wise taking the pro-life position, since our eternal destiny in heaven or hell may hinge upon it. (See "Pascal, Selections" here at archive, for a good explanation, giving the atheist and agnostic positions their strongest arguments).
I assume that you, the pro-choicer, think that we human beings have human rights. Your position, in fact, is that among the rights a human being has is the right to control one's reproduction. Well, at what point do you think that a human being, with human rights, comes into existence? Is it at birth, or earlier?
Pro-choice people argue that the lack of consensus about when life begins implies that abortion should be legal until birth. By why only until birth? Why not after birth--that is, why do we not allow infanticide? My concern is: what keeps us from legalizing infanticide? Is it only because there happens to be a consensus that infants are human beings with human rights? But what if that consensus should change? And it is not naive to suppose it might change. There have been many cultures throughout history which have condoned infanticide, just as many cultures have condoned slavery and human sacrifice. There are philosophers who have argued that there are no good reasons for favoring abortion but opposing infanticide. And reasoning like that used to support abortion has already been used in many cases to argue for infanticide of Downs Syndrome children.
Subject: Not Really About Abortion
So my review is mixed. The elements of an interesting story are there but there isn't much understanding exhibited for what these women really went through. The abortion meme was something of a 'red herring'.
Subject: Nice try at sounding intelligent...
Id like to agree with the woman who mentioned why women cry when they have a miscarriage... because a normal woman feels she has LOST something, but for Gods sake-
If you don't want to have a baby don't create one!
Subject: You should not be a judge, for if you judge you will be judged
Subject: Previous review sounds like a false flag
Subject: Pro Choice??? Not for the baby
Go F yourself you little tramp. Who gave the baby you MURDERED a choice? What was that babies OPTION you worthless tramp? You decided for him, now didn't you?
The "choice" was before you decided to spread your legs. But hey, ABORTIONS FOR ALL and just sleep with as many men as you please. After all, we can always just KILL the baby if you get pregnant by sucking its brains out.
These "pro choice" people are nothing more than murderers. Its like Charles Manson arguing his killings were "pro choice". Sorry but in the eyes of God YOU DO NOT DECIDE WHO LIVES AND DIES and you will suffer in the end, no matter what our earthly corrupted law here states. Think about that next time you want to kill another baby.
Subject: When Abortion Was Illegal:
Subject: Think what you want
Just remember:
You DO NOT have the right to decide for me.
Subject: When Abortion Was Illegal
Subject: I'm sick of all this "pro-choice" junk.
Um...an ORPHANAGE, maybe?
If you wanted to sound compassionate for your kid, don't go all sappy about how it was nicer to them to kill them. That's like Hitler saying that Jews and retards are better off dead because they're inferior. I'm not saying that the old hag was a Nazi, but she used the exact same argument.
"I worked hard, and I sold everything that I had that I could get a few pennies for, and I eventually got my $50 and I went out to see this woman."
Oh, how touching. A lady can't afford killing her kid, so she scrimps and saves until she can. That's a real moving story about how one mother was determined enough to KILL HER BABY! I'm so touched.
>DocHarman
"I am a male medical student at a very conservative medical school. I am extremely thankful for films such as this because it reminds me why I wanted to be a physician — as long as I am alive, women will always have the freedom of choice. This film and the stories with-in, are my motivation and truly keep me going."
Really? Your motivation for becoming a doctor was pre-birth infanticide? Gah.
There really isn't any way around the issue - as Dr. Seuss put it, "A person's a person, no matter how small."
>aaronshaf
"If privacy was the issue then we should let mother abuse their own born children in the privacy of their own homes."
Well-put. Who cares where you sleep? It doesn't matter if it's a crib or a basinet - if you're young enough, you can be killed without consequence. To the killer, that is...
>orlamay
"The issue is freedom of choice, if you are pro-life, that is your choice. If you have made the difficult decision to have an abortion and decide to do so, that is your choice. Once we start dictating to others what they can and can't do under our personal belief systems we are violating the constitution! Where do we draw that line?"
Nobody should use the pro-"choice" argument to defend infanticide. If all that matters is choice, then why do we have laws against murder, rape, etc? Don't criminals have a choice, too?
>kerriganm
"And to criminalize abortion is to take away a woman's ownership of herself"
IT'S NOT HER BODY, any more than Cheng owned Eng's body. If a conjoined twin kills their sibling, it's fratricide. If a pregnant mother kills the baby that needs her umbilical cord because there's no other way to get nutrients, it's infanticide. Duh.
Oh, and apparently nobody in these movies has heard of contraceptives, despite the fact that they were readily available at the time(not prescribed, of course, but easily obtainable).
Subject: Terrified ?
Still and all this is a pretty good film though. There is a lot to be said for both sides of this issue.
Subject: Abortion is Unethical
The watershed issue is whether an unborn child is an innocent human being. Woe to those who want it legal to sucks the brains and slaughter and terminate the lives of innocent human beings.
Subject: Very moving, poignant and revealing
Subject: Kippy-Kill-kill-kill !!!!!!
Subject: No
I think women can make their own choice. you fucks.
Kip has a point, women should have a choice to kill their babies...might i add...up to 5yrs old.
Aye????
Subject: Pro-choice with two children.
Subject: American Holocaust-1.5 Million per yr. Have No Voice and No Choice
Subject: I am not exactly "pro life" or "pro choice"
It's the same with guns. If you see a gun it's loaded, period. There should not be "I thought it was empty" crap and accidental shootings. When you see a gun, it is loaded and you treat it that way. Don't point it at yourself, or others (unless they piss you off). Take this principal and apply it to sex. Presume that this load is a baby if I let it go into my vagina, I should use a condom, and WHAM! no more "unplanned pregnancies".
And forget the "heat of the moment" crap and "it doesn't feel the same". Your life is worth more than a moment and how would you know what unprotected sex felt like unless you were stupid enough or catholic enough to do it?
There is no excuse for bringing a baby into the world unless you are prepared to take care of it. We require marriage licenses but anyone can have a kid? No IQ tests? No competency tests? Background checks? We obviously do not care about kids enough.
Abortion may not be evil against god but it is a careless waste of time, money and fetuses by someone who was irresponsible and selfish for the 30 seconds it takes to put a condom on a penis. Please, this will be the stupid issue that scares all the retarded religious people away from the only republican capable of saving us from the impending clintonian era...
Here's one to think about...
Should same sex marriage partners be able to terminate the pregnancy of surrogate mother?
Rudy in 08... for allah's sake.
Subject: A touching display of emotions,
The first statement in the movie says it all -
Doctor: "I told you not to get pregnant"
Patient: "But you didn't tell me how not to..."
Two possible situations here:
1. The woman does not know what causes pregnancy.
2. The woman DOES know, but claims that having sex is her inalienable right, and that it must have no consequences that could endanger her plans.
That's really what it's all about - the "right" to do whatever you please. Sorry, the world isn't made that way. Certain acts have certain consequences, and those who perform those acts have a responsibility that is unavoidable.
It seems the more innocent the victim, the easier it is for these types to take advantage. If a child got the last ticket for a movie you wanted to see, would you kill them? There is no difference.
Subject: Don't confuse the issue.
The issue is freedom of choice, if you are pro-life, that is your choice. If you have made the difficult decision to have an abortion and decide to do so, that is your choice. Once we start dictating to others what they can and can't do under our personal belief systems we are violating the constitution! Where do we draw that line?
What if I said you couldn't practice your religion?
Subject: No
Subject: a moderate viewpoint
In Basic Biology 101, we were taught that when a sperm and egg unite - and after that first cell divides - the result is a unique lifeform, different from either parent. And if that lifeform is human, you have human life. I'm surprised that the scientific community hasn't jumped onboard the pro-life wagon since, religion aside, science and religion are in complete agreement on the definition of life.
Even so, and though it flies in the face of scientific logic, I'm in favor of a woman's right to choose - with one proviso. Assuming we're talking about conception done the old-fashioned way, there are two parents who have a stake in the child's future - a mother AND a father. And though a father doesn't physically bear the child, the child in part bears characteristics of the father. So, somewhere in this mix, I think a father's opinion should count for something.
Subject: Top-notch documentary
Subject: Abortion is better than adoption?
It is pathetic that in the most advanced society in the history of humanity people think they can't afford a child. These people were misled and I am sure they know it deep down.
I hope they find reconciliation.
Subject: Moving
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